Career Summary

Biography

Johanna has built an excellent national reputation and a growing international reputation in employment relations, particularly on issues of collective bargaining and the role of industrial tribunals and other third parties in faciltiating co-operation relationships and productive workplace change. In 2014 she was awarded a prestigious ARC Linkage grant in this area, along with Professor Mark Bray (UoN), Professor Andrew Stewart (University of Adeiaide), Justice Iain Ross (Fair Work Commission), and the industrial Relations Society of NSW (Newcastle Branch).

She is the elected President of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ).

Johanna is an outstanding educator. In 2014 she was recognised by the Minister of Education with an Australian Universities Teaching Excellence Award. She has been a leader in implementing problem-based learning in professional education in the Faculty of Business and Law, and has received several other University and national teaching awards. She acted as Program Convenor for the Masters program in Human Resource Management from 2007-2010, a role to which she returned in 2013. She was awarded a University Career Enhancement Fellowship in 2011.

Johanna joined the University in 2007, returning to academia after several years as senior consultant in workplace relations and organisation design at Corrs Schneider, later Schneider (Australia) Consulting (1999-2006). Prior to this she was a Senior Lecturer in Management and Executive Director of the Centre for Change Management at Deakin University (1996-1998); and a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University's National Key Centre in Industrial Relations (1992-95).

Research ExpertiseIn applied/workplace industrial relations issues; in theory and practice of change management; in theory of work design and worker participation.

Administrative ExpertiseIn convening programs; in management of large-scale research projects; in design and implementation of effective program/ course review processes; in policy design; in chartering/chairing committees.

CollaborationsJohanna's primary research collaboration within the discipline of industrial/employment relations is with Mark Bray, Professor of Employment Studies at the University of Newcastle and Andrew Stewart, John Bray Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide. She also works with Professors Nigel Haworth (Auckland University) and Erling Rasmussen (Auckland University of Technology). Their shared interests are in on government and regulatory processes to promote effective co-operation. Johanna is also working with Professors Allyson Holbrook and Sid Bourke from the School of Education on doctoral education.

Qualifications

PhD, University of Melbourne

Bachelor of Arts, University of Melbourne

Post Graduate Diploma (Educational Psychology), Monash University

Master of Business Administration, University of Melbourne

Keywords

employment relations

high performance work systems

human resource management

interest-based bargaining

organisation theory

problem-based learning

role of third parties in collective bargaining

soft regulation of employment relations

Fields of Research

Code

Description

Percentage

150305

Human Resources Management

40

150306

Industrial Relations

60

Professional Experience

UON Appointment

Title

Organisation / Department

Senior Lecturer

University of NewcastleNewcastle Business SchoolAustralia

Academic appointment

Dates

Title

Organisation / Department

1/01/2015 -

Elected President

Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ)Australia

1/02/2014 - 1/02/2015

Elected Vice President

Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ)Australia

1/02/2012 - 1/02/2014

Executive Member

Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ)Australia

1/10/2010 - 1/02/2015

Book Review Editor

Journal of Industrial RelationsAustralia

1/01/2010 -

Membership - Industrial Relations Society of Australia

Industrial Relations Society of AustraliaAustralia

1/01/2008 -

Membership - Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ)

Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ)Australia

Invitations

Speaker

Year

Title / Rationale

2014

Third Party Facilitators of Interest-Based Negotiations (IBN): An Australian Case Study and BeyondOrganisation: The Institute for Work and Employment Research, Sloan School of Management, Massachussets Institute of Technology

2014

The Role of Third Party Faciliators in Interest-Based BargainingOrganisation: School of Labor and Employment Relations, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

2013

How private third party 'consultants' help unions and management do mixed bargainingOrganisation: Centre for Work, Organisation and Well-being, Griffith University

2012

The Role of Consultants in Interest-Based BargainingOrganisation: Industrial Relations Society of NSW (Newcastle Branch)
Description:

2012

Third Parties and Interest-Based Bargaining: A new research projectOrganisation: Work and Organisation Studies Group, Sydney University

2011

The Role of Third Party Facilitators in Interest-Based Bargaining: An Australian Case StudyOrganisation: New Zealand Work & Labour Market Institute, Auckland University of Technology

Macneil JL, 'The limits of best practice? A research agenda for explaining the fate of 33 Australian manufacturers, 1992-2009', First Asia-Pacific Workshop on Teams under the auspices of the International Workshop on Teamworking (IWOT), Newcastle, NSW (2009) [E2]

Postrado L, Macneil JL, Bray MD, ''We came from B shift, and B shift was the enemy': Rules, norms and conflict at an aluminium smelter', Labour, Capital and Change: Proceedings of the 23rd Conference of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, Newcastle, NSW (2009) [E1]

Macneil JL, 'Can mutual gains be achieved in a high performance work system?', Labour, Capital and Change: Proceedings of the 23rd Conference of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, Newcastle, NSW (2009) [E2]

Macneil JL, Rimmer M, Testi J, 'Raising the Standards. Benchmarking and Best Practice in Australia: Progress in the Top 500 Enterprises', Best Practice Program, Department of industrial Relations/Australian Manufacturing Council (1992)

20061 grants / $60,000

Industrial Relations Victoria sought to evaluate two of their Grants Programs, "Partners at work" and "Better Work and Family Balance". These grants programs provided funding to Victorian organisations in period 2000-2005 to support the design and implementation of high performance work practices within a union-management partnership framework. A survey was designed and administered; several organisations were investigated to gather qualitative data; and a report was submitted which provided feedback and recommendations in relation to the activities of funded organisations; the operation of the Programs; and government IR policy more generally.

Funding body: Victorian Department of Business and Innovation

Funding body

Victorian Department of Business and Innovation

Project Team

Scheme

Research Project

Role

Lead

Funding Start

2006

Funding Finish

2006

GNo

Type Of Funding

Other Public Sector - State

Category

2OPS

UON

Y

19982 grants / $114,000

To develop a rigorous framework for evaluating organisational returns on training investment; conduct action research with several case study organisations on the application of the framework; and report on the results, through a formal report to government and public dissemination.

19952 grants / $154,000

Commissioned by the Federal Department of Industrial Relations, this project comprised the development of a methodology/protocol to conduct case studies of 42 organisations funded by the Best Practice Program; the conduct of 10 of these cases; and writing of the cases for publication. The cases were subsequently published commercially in 1996 by Pitman, The Best Practice Experience, Volumes 1- 3 (eds. Rimmer, Macneil, Chenhall, Langfield-Smith, Watts, and Caruso).

Commissioned by the Department of Industrial Relations, this project was a cross-case analysis of case studies of 42 companies funded under the Best Practice Program to introduce collaborative 'best practice' (high performance work systems) change. The report was subsequently published commercially in 1996 by Pitman Publishing as Reinventing Competitiveness: Best Practice in Australian Enterprises (Rimmer, Macneil, Chenhall, Langfield-Smith and Watts).